This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| mosviz | |
|---|---|
| Name | mosviz |
| Developer | NASA |
| Released | 2017 |
| Latest release | 2024 |
| Programming language | Python (programming language) |
| Operating system | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows |
| License | BSD license |
mosviz
mosviz is an interactive visualization and analysis tool designed for astronomical spectroscopy and imaging datasets. It provides an integrated graphical interface for exploring multidimensional data from observatories and missions, enabling rapid inspection, calibration, and cross-comparison of spectra and images. Developed to support workflows across archives, pipelines, and research groups, mosviz interfaces with prominent projects and standards in observational astronomy.
mosviz is an application for interactive examination of spectral, imaging, and time-series data originating from observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Very Large Telescope, Atacama Large Millimeter Array, and instruments like NIRSpec, MIRI, and STIS. It is built to work with data models and formats standardized by the Flexible Image Transport System, FITS, and Astropy-compatible structures. The tool supports research activities tied to missions such as Kepler, TESS, Gaia, Spitzer Space Telescope, and survey programs like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Pan-STARRS. Its design aligns with data dissemination efforts by institutions including the Space Telescope Science Institute, European Space Agency, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
mosviz includes interactive plotting powered by libraries related to Matplotlib (software), Bokeh, and Glue (software), with integration for analysis routines from Astropy and SciPy. Visualization features support inspection of 1D spectra, 2D spectral images, and 2D imaging with overlays for catalogs such as SIMBAD, Vizier, and GALEX. It provides spectral extraction, redshift estimation linked to tools used by SDSS specialists, wavelength calibration routines comparable to workflows at STScI and NOIRLab, and line-fitting utilities akin to packages used in ESO pipelines. Data provenance and metadata editing follow conventions from International Virtual Observatory Alliance standards and archive practices at MAST and IRSA.
The software is implemented primarily in Python (programming language), leveraging modular packages from the Scientific Python ecosystem such as Astropy for data models, NumPy for numerical arrays, and Pandas for tabular data. Its GUI layer builds on interactive frameworks related to Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab, using widget toolkits that echo functionality found in IPython frontends. Backend services can interface with archive protocols like Simple Image Access Protocol and Table Access Protocol promulgated by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance. Packaging and distribution practices mirror those used by projects hosted on GitHub and PyPI, with continuous integration patterns inspired by Travis CI and GitHub Actions.
Users commonly load observation products from archives managed by MAST, IRSA, ESA Science Data Centre, or local pipeline outputs from facilities such as Keck Observatory and Gemini Observatory. Typical workflows include ingestion of calibrated FITS files, interactive selection of aperture traces similar to procedures at ESO, spectral extraction following conventions used by HST spectroscopists, and cross-matching with catalogs from Gaia or SDSS. The interface supports tagging, batch processing akin to scripts used in Astropy-based pipelines, and export formats compatible with repositories like Zenodo and institutional data archives at NASA centers.
mosviz interoperates with ecosystem tools such as Specutils, photutils, regions (Astropy affiliated package), and visualization integrators like Glue (software). It reads and writes formats standardized by FITS, ASDF, and interoperates with virtual observatory services defined by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance. Integration points include authentication and data access methods employed by MAST, crosslinks to catalog services like SIMBAD, and metadata schemas compatible with archival standards at NOIRLab. Compatibility testing often references platforms such as Ubuntu, macOS, and Windows Server used by research groups and data centers.
Development occurs in open-source repositories hosted on platforms like GitHub, with contributions from teams at Space Telescope Science Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, and partner institutions including STScI collaborators and university groups. The community includes users from projects such as JWST, HST, ALMA, and survey teams from LSST precursor studies, with issue tracking and feature requests coordinated through repository workflows similar to those used by Astropy and SunPy. Documentation, tutorials, and example notebooks are provided in formats inspired by Jupyter Notebook tutorials and trainings run by Science and Technology Facilities Council-affiliated workshops.
Initial development traces to efforts supporting multi-object spectrograph visualization needs voiced by staff at Space Telescope Science Institute and collaborators working on JWST instrument commissioning. Subsequent releases followed semantic versioning and included features aligned with community priorities such as FITS metadata handling, virtual observatory service compatibility, and improvements in interactive plotting paralleling advances in Bokeh and Matplotlib (software). Release notes often cite compatibility updates for Astropy releases, bug fixes coordinated with contributions from observatory instrument teams, and performance enhancements drawing on optimizations used in NumPy and SciPy.
Category:Astronomy software